Sony Pictures has announced the four actors cast to play John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in its “four-film cinematic event” about The Beatles.
At CinemaCon in Las Vegas, director Sam Mendes announced Harris Dickinson will portray Lennon, Paul Mescal will play McCartney, Joseph Quinn has been cast as Harrison and Starr will be played by Barry Keoghan, the Hollywood Reporter wrote Monday night.
“We’re not just making one film about the Beatles — we’re making four,” Mendes said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “Perhaps this is a chance to understand them a little more deeply.”
Each film will focus on each individual Beatle. The movies will be “the first binge-able theatrical experience,” Mendes said, citing Tom Rothman, CEO of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group. To this point, all four films are slated for release in April 2028, all produced and directed by Mendes.
The Instagram accounts for Sony, The Beatles and the four respective accounts of each band member shared a photo of the four actors on Tuesday.
Dickinson last year starred opposite Nicole Kidman in “Babygirl.” Mescal recently starred in Ridley Scott’s sequel to the 2000 epic “Gladiator.” Quinn will portray the Human Torch in Marvel’s upcoming “Fantastic Four: First Steps.” Keoghan starred in 2023’s “Saltburn” and portrayed the Joker in a cameo in “The Batman” in 2022.
Considered one of the most successful bands in music history, The Beatles’ tenure spanned a whole decade between 1960 and 1970. They released 13 studio albums, including “A Hard Day’s Night,” “St. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Let it Be” and “Abbey Road.”
Lennon was assassinated in 1980 and Harrison died in 2001. Now in their early 80s, McCartney and Starr have continued their band’s legacy and still tour across the globe.
In November 2023, McCartney and Starr released what they said was “the last Beatles song,” called “Now and Then.” With the help of AI to clean up a demo Lennon sent to McCartney in the 1970s, along with audio of Harrison on the guitar in the 1990s, McCartney and Starr added their own music and vocals to compose the song.
“Now and Then” was released as a double A-side single with “Love Me Do,” the band’s 1962 debut single.
